Hello TiredNWired. I am so sorry to hear yet another person has had an adverse reaction to the rabies vaccine. Sounds like you are going through a lot worse than myself, but there are many others who posted to this site that were or are dealing with major side effects like yours. I also came in contact with a stray cat, got scratched, told by PCP wound was healing and very low risk for the virus, no vaccine needed. But, my mind would not rest, anxiety building, and 16 days later I opted to get the vaccine. I got thru all the shots with minimal side effects.only light headed/dizzy and muscle aches. But within a couple weeks after last shot more obvious side effects started, continued muscle pains all over, sharp nerve pains, ice pick headache pains and the extreme FEAR THAT I HAD GOTTEN THE SHOTS TOO LATE. Panic attacks, anxiety) I am over 1 year out from my event (10/2019) and still have intermittent muscle aches and nerve pain, but I'm positive that given more time, these too will go away. Keep positive, take care of yourself...wishing you a full/complete recovery.

Thank you for reading my story and sharing your experience. I'm sorry we have experienced pain in common. I'm glad to hear that a year later you are doing better. I'm sorry that you still experience pain.

I am having a rough time lately. Almost a month after my last shot and I am cycling through new symptoms and the previous set ends. It was first a really bad constant headache for 2 weeks, and that got better. Then this round of upper abdominal pain like pancreatitis - except there was no evidence of it in tests. I now wonder if it's gastroparesis instead? And now, within the past two days, it's urinary retention time and not knowing when to pee. I am hardly producing urine and have lower abdominal pain.

The whole thing is weird. Like the Forest Gump line about life being like a box of chocolates and not knowing what you're going to get. I hope it gets better soon.

Well, here I am roughly 7 months since beginning these shots (6.5 from finishing) and I’m back on the rollercoaster of symptoms. I’m having pins and needles, muscle spasms everywhere, sore throat/lump in throat feeling, and of course this makes the worries begin all over again.

I know I’ll get through this, but it is distressing. I hope you’re all hanging in there.

So, it's a little over a month since my last post, and thought I'd fill people in on how I'm doing.

After my last post, the urinary retention continued along with losing thirst reflex. I simply couldn't tell when I was thirsty. And while I tried to drink more water, I couldn't drink much and felt done early.

The end result? I eventually ended up with nearly brown urine (what little did come out) and serious case of dehydration. I nearly fainted when I stood up, and ended up in the ER with chest pain. They tested me and gave me a lot of IV fluids. I was discharged and told to hydrate myself more, required 2 liters of water a day whether I felt thirsty or not.

I continued to feel weak and exhausted and not at all like myself. But eventually I began to get the thirst reflex back, and drink like a normal human being.

That was about 3 weeks ago.

About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that a number of my symptoms I reported here a few weeks after my third shot had improved... I'm no longer getting severe headaches at the base of my skull. I slowly began to eat more solid food and my digestive system came back online, and I'm able to eat a normally portioned meal - but I do digest food better if I eat smaller meals more often during the day. I began to have bowel movements again when I wasn't, between not being able to eat and incredibly slow gut motility.

In terms of nerve pain, I'm rarely getting intense muscle and nerve pain in my legs (especially the upper thighs). 3 weeks after my third (and last) shot, I was able to walk around the block near my home a couple days a week and it took 20 minutes; when I got home I was exhausted and in pain and had to lie down. Now it's been nearly two months since my last shot, and I can walk several blocks, stop to take photos with my phone, and walk home in about 40 minutes to an hour and I am fatigued but there is not much pain. If I walk longer than that, I will get hip and thigh pain that's pretty intense. But this to me is a major improvement.

Something is still wrong. I am getting episodic joint paint in my hands and arms and legs, and I never had this before the shots. I get what feels like tendon pain/tendonitis randomly, too. I don't know what to do about it and I have appointment with a neurologist in the near future to discuss this and orthostatic hypotension.

I also feel like something is not right in my brain/breathing centers ever since I had the weird sensation within days of the shot where my ability to breathe voluntarily was affected. Because rabies virus attacks the brainstem, I suspect the dead virus is also found there, and affected me somehow. (I'd really like someone who researches this to tell me more about what I may have experienced; it's been the most disconcerting aspect of this post-vaccine hell.)

About a week after my last post, my titer test came back. It is 3.0. So in theory it's protective, but we all know from the fine print about what a protective titer is that it's a relative statement. However, no one really wants me to get the 4th shot given I reacted so badly to the first 3. The case rate in my area is super low, and we think we have seen the cat that bit me. The doctors originally were not going to give me the shots at all, and despite underlying medical conditions let me get them because my anxiety was severe and intractable when I went to the ER.

I also want to eventually get a COVID vaccine. And am afraid that I'm going to react badly to that, or possibly trigger something worse in me after this series of 3 shots in one week. It's hard to navigate this decision given what I've been through, and it's not clear how having a mast cell activation disorder affects it.

This is pretty long-winded, but I wanted to give a thorough update in case anyone wondered how I'm doing and in case anyone else would benefit from the sharing of my experience.

What I have learned that has really helped me echoes something someone else wrote here many posts ago: The anxiety can be severe with this situation, and it amplifies and worsens symptoms. It's important to find a way to tone it down, and focus on something other than the worst case scenario. The anxiety can create a vicious cycle that makes symptoms worse, which makes the anxiety worse, and then the symptoms worse.

I had to repeatedly tell myself, "It will be okay, a symptom means the shots are working - not that you are experiencing the virus" and then eventually a shorter "A symptom is just the shot side effect. Chill." It took many repeats in my head of doing this and pushing myself a little physically to do things around the house and take a walk (even if it hurt) for this to slowly improve over the course of a month.

Okay, all for now. :-)

I’m glad you’re hanging in there. Anxiety is definitively ely a factor!
I had a lot of joint pain especially in my hands. Icing and heating your hands can be helpful... At about month 6 post vaccine it began to subside for me and haven’t had that arthritis feeling since.

I truly hope you find some peace of mind during your upcoming appointment!

Can you give us an update. Are you better now. What about pins and needless. Did they gone with the supplements you took;

Hello,

I just found this post searching the web and I am going to describe my past and current symptoms. I had a 5-dose post-exposure rabies shot out of precaution in August 2020 and in September/October started feeling weird stuff in my body, which could be or could not be linked... but resembles in many cases what's described in this post.

• August 2020: stomach age, tiredness, feeling of unrest (24 hours post shots)
• September 2020: one marked episode of pins and needles in both feet, followed by sporadic heat sensation and tingling. Started getting numb feet randomly when sitting, that lasts to this day. Developed an urge to urinate for about two months. Tested STD, UTI, lots of other stuff, all came back negative.
• November 2020: had 4-5 sporadic episodes of tinnitus, lasting a few seconds, with a permanent onset early december. I'm sure this is muscular as pressing my jaw, flexing my neck, or other neck movements change the tone of the tinnitus. Checked with ENT doctor, tested outter, middle and inner ear, all normal. I developed a feeling of neck weakness and crackling.
• January 2021: persistent numbness in hands when waking up that subsided for the most part after moving them and numbness on feet when sitting, as well as random tingling in feet and arms.
• February 2021: began having fasciculations and tinglingall over my body, first in my left hand right dorsal, then left eye, then everywhere else: legs, arms, chest, cheek, you name it. They come and go, randomly, and have a high frequency. They don't hurt but are annoying. They last to this day. Then began noticing that my fingers had a slight tremor. When holding the phone on two fingers I began noticing my heartbeats more and more.
• March 2021: began having a feeling of weakness in legs and arms, especially hands. When doing exercise I noticed shaking upon applying minimal force (similar to when you try to hold a plank for a long time, just from the very beginning. Started in all 4 limbs at the same time, as well as neck. Super weird.
• April 2021: developed a new symptom - I feel like my body vibrates inside, especially when I lie in bed. It happens some time, it's as if my legs, arms and torso were shivering inside.

I've visited two Neurologists and a Neurosurgeon during this time, got a B12 prescription and multiple tests - full spine MRI, head MRI, all back normal except for some disc herniations without stenosis or nerve compression. Did lots of bloodwork for immune disorders and other, all came back negative.

I see that my symptoms match some of the previous ones posted here. I'm dismayed in that symptoms seem to be developing for the worse instead of getting better.

I plan on going again to the Neurologist and ask for a NCS and EMG since this seems to be the last tests that I'm missing. In general doctors pointed out at stress but I know my body well and I can totally tell there's something abnormal going on. I don't know if it's related to rabies vaccine but I didn't visit a doctor for anything related for the past 10 years and I can't think of any other relevant event.

I'll keep you posted with the developments.

Hi all! I just wanted to quickly check in to let everyone know that I am 95% back to normal! I took 5 shots of the rabies vaccine in August and September of 2019. I had pretty bad symptoms of neuropathy (random twitching, tingling, phantom water drops all over my legs, feet, arms, and hands) until about February of 2020. since then, my only recurring symptom is random leg twitching. This does not happen very frequently and seems to only be triggered by extreme stress or fatigue. It does not intervene with my life whatsoever. I learned that the best way to combat this is to take care of your body as much as possible by resting, eating healthy, and not drinking much. Also, it is best to try to keep your mind occupied since I felt like, at times, I would hyper-fixate on my symptoms and magnify them. I know it is easier said than done, but that is what mostly worked for me. Also, I was forced to focus on other things since, around that time, I went through a break up, a move to a different country, and a job change! lol Anyway, I would really like to thank BatBite24 and everyone else that has been consistently updating and helping out others on this forum. (I would also love to hear from Tobius and the few other people I talked to during this time if y’all are still around) My post vaccine period was easily the most depressed I have ever been. My best wishes and hugs to everyone else that is currently going through it. I hope my recovery story is of some help.